Shoe-lace hook



R. E. McCALLEN.

SHOE LACE HOOK. APPLICATION men JUNE 30,1 9l9.

1,363,523 Patented Dec. 28,1920.

lzaveizZO/i R E. Jfc Calle io.

ROBERT E. MGCALLEN, OF PRESCOTT, ARIZUNA.

SHGE-LAGE HOOK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

L l Patented Dee. 28,. 132d.

Application filed June 30, 1919. Serial No. 307,500.

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that I, Bonner E. MoCALLnn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Prescott, in the county of Yavapai and State of Arizona, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Shoe-Lace Hooks, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to lacing devices, and more especially to studs; and the object oi the same is to produce a hook designed particularly for shoe lacing.

The invention consists primarily in giving the hook such form as to reduce to the minimum the possibility that garments will catch upon it, and secondarily in disposing the tip of the book so close to the shoe upper as to serve to an extent to retain the lace therein.

Details are brought out in the following specification and shown in the drawings wherein:

Figure 1 will be considered a plan View of several hooks of this invention, showing a shoe upper as laced by their use.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged plan view of one of the hooks.

Fig. 3 is a lower end view, looking in the glirection of the arrow III marked adjacent Fig. 4 is a side view looking in the direction of the arrow TV marked adjacent Fig. 2.

The shoe upper U is open down its front at O, and ordinarily it has eyelets l at the lower )ortion of this opening and hooked studs I I at the upper portion thereof the lace L being strung through the eyelets, engaged with the hooks, and finally knotted as at K. If it be a mans shoe, it frequently happens that the hem at the lower end of the trousers catches in the hooks; and if it be a. ladys shoe, she often has the same diiiiculty with the hem and particularly the lace on the skirt. Manifestly a garment will rarely catch on a hook it it opens upward, and therefore it is the hook whose throat opens downward or laterally which causes the trouble. But whatever the disposition of the bill of the hook, its shank must be lateral to its point of support, because the pull on the lacing is transverse of the upper U and toward the front opening O. In order to reduce to a minimum the chance of a garment catching on the hook and yet retain the shank at its correct working position, I have formed my improved lacing hook as shown in the drawings and now to be described in detail; but for sake of easier description let us assume that Figs. 1 and 2 are plan views and that Fig. 2 illustrates one of the hooks at the left side of the open-- ing 0* which, of course, is the right side as viewed by the reader. I

This improved hook is by preference stamped from sheet metal, being made of proper metal and appropriate gage, and probably finally treated to give it the correct color and finish. As will be seen "from Fig. 1 it is made in rights and le'fts, and we may be said to be considering the hook marked H in this view. its manner of fastening to the upper U is unimportant, and. I do not wish to be limited to the details shown herein. The base 1 is substantially circular, herein shown as having an opening 2 at its center, around which opening the metal is bent downward into teeth 3 which pass through and are criniped under the leather U and therefore constitute means for fastening the hook thereto. rlowever, any appropriate means might be employed for fastening the base on the leather. As seen in Fig. 3, the base 1 is preferably flat, and when in place upon and fastened to the leather it is possible that the fastening means may draw the base slightly into the face of the leather. At one lateral side of the base (which would be the side next the opening '0 in the shoe) the circular periphery of the base is interrupted and the metal thereof is carried outward and bent upward into what will be the shank 4 of the hook, this shank curving longitudinally in over the base into the top of the hook and being also curved transversely so that the lace L makes a gentle rather than an abrupt bend where it engages the shank. The lower edge of the shank slopes upward from the base as perhaps best seen at 5 in Fig. 4, while the upper edge 6 thereof is carried outward almost on aline at right angles to the longitudinal bend of the shank itself, or in a direction which would be up the shoe.

The part of this hook overlying the base is, of course, its bill, but it must be described more minutely than by this single designating term. The shank is carried over the base into what might be called the top 10 of the hook which is arched considerably as shown, and from the lower edge of the shank the lower line 11 of this top passes obliquely Fig. 2.

across the hole or opening 2 and nearly over the center of the base, leaving perhaps the lower half of the base exposed as seen in The top 10 is extended upward in an ample lobe 12 whereof one side line 13 continues the line 11, the other side line 16 rises from the upper edge 6 of the shank, and the upper end line 15 connects the lines 13 and 16 on a curve so that the entire upper portion of the lobe is struck almost on a semi-circle The elements referred to as top and lobe collectively constitute the bill of the hook, and the extreme upper end of said bill which is the tip of the hook is bent downward at i i best seen in Fig. 4: so that it stands quite near the upper U, and possibly nearer to it when the upper is flat than the thickness of the lace L. Thus the mouth of the hook is restricted, and the lace must really be borne down onto the upper to pass it under the tip in either direction. The lower line 11 of the top which rises obliquely from the lower edge 5 of the shank will cause any garment hem or lace moving upward to slide along its edge. The construction of the shank for the purpose or" preventing catching of a garment thereon has already been described, and the rounding of the edge and depression of the tip of the bill will render catching of a garment thereon extremely unlikely. Depressing the tip of the bill in the manner described will not make it difficult to engage the shoe lace with the hook for the reason that it starts under the hook before it reaches the point of depression. It is also evident that both the leatherand the hook will give sufiiciently, at the point where the hook is depressed, to allow the lace to pass under easily when lacing or unlacing the shoe. The leather will give because of its resilient qualities, and the bill of the hook will give because its tip overhangs the leather, instead or overhanging its own base. Only slight pressure is needed to raise or turn it on its axis, which may be considered to pass through the center of its base transversely to the shoe upper.

As illustrated in Figs. 1 and 4: the major 'portionor" the bill is extended beyond the base and cooperates with the adjacent portion of the shoe upper in forming a yieldable entrance opening for the shoe lace. By this construction the shoe lace is securely held in engagement with the shank of the hook and may be readily removed by reason of the fact that one side of the entrance opening thus formed is yieldable.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

A shoe lace hook including a base having means for attaching the same to a shoe upper, a shank extending outwardly from the base, and a bill carried by the shank and extending obliquely of the base in the direction of the shoe top, said bill being inclined uniformly toward the plane of the base and having its major portion extended beyond the base for cooperating with the adjacent portion of the shoe top in forming a yieldable restricted entrance opening for a shoe lace.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

ROBERT E. McCALLEN. [L.S.'] 

